18 August 2000FACT SHEET ON COUNTERNARCOTICS EFFORTS IN THE ANDEAN REGION
-- Andean net coca cultivation and potential cocaine production continued to decline in 1999 and is now at its lowest level since 1987. Overall Andean net coca cultivation declined to 180,000 hectares in 1999, 4 percent less than the 1998 figure, and 15 percent less than in 1995. Potential cocaine production fell to 765 metric tons, a drop of 7 percent from the 1998 figure, and an 18 percent drop since 1995. -- Aggressive drug crop eradication, interdiction operations, and alternative economic development programs in Peru and Bolivia reduced coca cultivation in those countries 66% and 55%, respectively, since 1995. In large part due to successful counternarcotics programs in Peru and Bolivia, coca cultivation in the Andean region has shifted to guerrilla- and paramilitary-controlled territory in Colombia. ANDEAN POTENTIAL COCAINE PRODUCTION (Metric Tons) 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Peru 460 435 325 240 175 Bolivia 240 215 200 150 70 Colombia 230 300 350 435 520 Totals 930 950 875 825 765 ANDEAN COCA CULTIVATION (Hectares) 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Peru 115,300 94,400 68,800 51,000 38,700 Bolivia 48,600 48,100 45,800 38,000 21,800 Colombia 50,900 67,200 79,500 101,800 122,500 Totals 214,800 209,700 194,100 190,800 183,000 -- Colombia now supplies more illicit drugs to the United States than any other country in the world. Ninety percent of the cocaine in the U.S. market comes from Colombia -- as does, according to estimates, up to two-thirds of the heroin on the East Coast. -- The problems in Colombia affect the lives of Americans at home and abroad. Illegal drugs cost our society 52,000 lives and nearly $110 billion dollars each year, due to health costs, accidents and lost productivity. -- Colombia's drug trafficking organizations are a pernicious source of instability. They funnel funds to insurgents and vigilante-like paramilitaries for protection and other services. Meanwhile, the traffickers' relentless intimidating and corrupting influence constitutes a serious threat to the rule of law and free-market democratic institutions in Colombia. -- The Government of Colombia recognizes the severity of the threat and is fully committed to cooperating with the United States on counternarcotics issues. This is a historic opportunity to provide Colombia the support and material it needs to implement Plan Colombia and to ensure that coca and opium poppy cultivation are eventually eliminated. -- President Clinton's assistance package is fully in line with our $18.5 billion National Drug Control Strategy, which outlines a comprehensive attack on the illicit drug trade -- from eliminating production at the source, interdicting drug shipments and prosecuting traffickers, to reducing U.S. consumption through $6 billion worth of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation programs. -- The supply reduction efforts outlined in Plan Colombia are essential to reducing the availability of illegal drugs and giving domestic U.S. demand reduction programs a better chance of success. (end fact sheet)